blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Getting Ready for the Eventual Big One – “Prepare War” – “Assemble Yourselves.”

June 25, 2005

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Joel 3:9-17 – Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. [11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. [12] Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

[13] Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. [14] Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

[16] The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. [17] So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

I do not expect the war of Joel 3:9-16 to begin this year, but I do believe it will begin before 2013.

The three articles by Sam Goodenough in the Jerusalem Newswire give the latest news on preparations for this war which much eventually begin.
Begin Article 1

Hizb’allah – 20,000 rockets and counting

Jerusalem Newswire

By Stan Goodenough

June 11, 2007

The Lebanese Hizb’allah continues to arm itself for war with Israel, and no international effort is likely to be made to stop it.

According to intelligence reports, the Iranian-armed and Syrian-supported Islamist group once again has more than 20,000 missiles in its arsenal.

This despite the fact that the United Nations ceasefire agreement signed by Jerusalem and Beirut last August stipulated that Lebanon would stop arms supplies reaching the Hizb’allah from Syria.

Hizb’allah had fewer weapons when it succeeded in forcing nearly one million Israelis from their homes, and dealt Israel’s economy a severe blow

as it rained rockets down on the north of the country last summer.

The small terror group also scored a major victory when the IDF was unable to root it out of southern Lebanon despite its overwhelmingly superior force.

Israeli officials believe there are a number of advanced missiles now in Hizb’allah’s hands, some able to hit the suburbs of Tel Aviv.

Estimates are that a renewed conflict with the group could break out as early

as this July.

Begin Article 2

Military Intelligence: War could be triggered this summer

By Stan Goodenough

June 24, 2007

Take your pick, Israel’s Military Intelligence chief warned the cabinet Sunday.

War could be triggered this summer by any of the following parties or a combination of some of them: Iran, Syria, Hizb’allah, Hamas and World Jihad.

All are spoiling for a fight said Major-General Amos Yadlin, and any one of them “can bring about a deterioration in the situation this summer.”

News agencies reported that the head of Israel’s internal security service – the Shin Bet – also reported that Hamas, newly in charge of the Gaza Strip, is considering carrying out a terrorist attack which could draw the IDF into Gaza.

The overall assessment appears to be that while none of Israel’s enemies may actually choose to initiate a conflict just yet, one or more could miscalculate in a way that tips things over the edge.

In a Middle East malodorous with fumes of hatred and tension, one spark could ignite a conflagration.

Begin Article 3

Cabinet paves way for Fatahland in ‘West Bank’

Jerusalem Newswire

By Stan Goodenough

June 24, 2007

The Israeli government Sunday set the Jewish state once more on course towards destruction by opening the door for the creation of a Fatah-controlled Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

In their weekly cabinet meeting, all except two of the ministers approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to recognize the newly appointed Palestinian Authority and release hundreds of millions of dollars in suspended tax funds to help get PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas on his feet.

Israel’s move – which is wholeheartedly approved by the US administration – comes after Abbas showed himself incapable of exercising what authority he had been given over the previously Hamas-controlled PA.

As such, Olmert has moved to establish an artificial Israel-and-US-created entity, and has provided it with a temporary life-support system in the hope that by doing so the Arabs on the street will swing their support behind Fatah and away from Hamas.

Apparently lost behind this smokescreen is the reality that Abbas and his Fatah are antisemitic terrorists whose hands are drenched with the blood of Jews, and who remain as committed as Hamas to eradicating the Jewish state from the Middle East albeit as secularites rather than Islamists.

Right-thinking Israelis and Christian Zionists have warned about the folly of continuing on a path whose premise has already been proven bankrupt, which has terribly eroded Israel’s security, and which has cost the lives of thousands of Jews.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by

the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

For more detailed information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

From Lean and Keen to Potluck and Party!

June 25, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

When one is long absent from young children, it is instantly observed how much they have changed upon return. Had I lived in Israel on a continual basis, the change in the demeanor and character of the Israeli military men would not have seemed as drastic as it did during visits on an intermittent basis from 1952 to 1999. I have written many articles on the declining physical attributes and patriotic attitude of the average individual in the Israeli military apparatus. The high ranking officers are now attempting to rebuild the attributes and attitudes of the armed forces.

In order for the soldier to be effective as a part of the whole he must be lean physically and keen mentally, and there is no substitute for combat experience where he or she faces an enemy with deadly weapons, rather than rocks hurled at them. A soldier must be strong physically, as well as mentally prepared to patriotically defend his country, much as the Apostle Paul inferred in his Epistle to his son in the Faith, Timothy.

II Timothy 2:3,4 – Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [4] No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

There was a valor and patriotism in the military men and women I met after the 1948 War, and it was still there after the 1967 War but, in my opinion, from 1982 to last years conflict I witnessed a steady decline in both valor and patriotism of the average Israeli soldier. My contacts were with the foot soldiers of

the IDF. I had little contact with the tank corps or the IAF, so I have nothing to say about either branch.

I hope there will be a revival of the spirit of willingness to pay whatever price is required in a spirit of valor and patriotism before the war which now looms in Israel’s future. This is not the time for appeasement to a brutal fanaticism that will give no quarter once it strikes.

Begin Article from Lebanon Daily Star

Are Israel’ s armed force

s destined for more decline

?

By Uri Bar-Joseph

June 16, 2007

Approximately six months before the Six-Day War, the Israeli armed forces rejected an American proposal to assist Israel in finding technological solutions to the intensifying infiltration of Palestinian guerrillas into Israel. Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin and his generals expressed the view that the right answer to the problem was increasing military pressure on Syria, rather than electronic fences that would turn Israel into another ghetto and consume the scarce manpower and financial resources that were needed to reinforce the army. Forty years later, the Israeli Army – which is by far

the strongest between Morocco and the Indian subcontinent – failed to defeat a few thousand Hizbullah fighters who kept launching Katyusha rockets until the very last moment of the July-August 2006 Lebanon war.

The gap between the aggressive, lean military machine of the 1960s and the far bigger, bureaucratic and less effective army of the early 21st century was, to a large extent, the result of the June 1967 war. Before the war, Israel’s armed forces had to defend a vulnerable state, most of whose territory was within the range

of Arab artillery. The territorial outcomes of the war turned Damascus, Amman, and Cairo into prey for the Israel Air Force,

and the Suez Canal and its industrial area into an easy target for Israeli artillery. Most importantly, the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip made the Israeli military responsible for administering the lives of nearly 1 million Palestinian civilians.

In the first decade after the war, when Israel’s main challenge was still conventional Arab forces, the armed forces succeeded in maintaining their professional quality. This was proven in October 1973, when Israel came back from a near defeat in the first days of the war to a situation where only a United Nations resolution saved the Egyptian Army from complete destruction. But the war was Israel’s last conventional conflict. The peace treaty with Egypt rendered the Arab conventional military option more remote than ever. And even though, in the short run, the traditional threat was replaced by that of the eastern front coalition headed by Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s 1980 attack on Iran almost completely nullified that, too. The collapse of the USSR, Syria’s strategic ally, and the 1991 Gulf war that destroyed much of the Iraqi Army completed this process. The end of the Cold War left Israel’s armed forces with no real effective enemies.

In parallel to the decline of the conventional threat, the non-conventional challenge of Arab guerrilla and terrorism began to rise. The Israeli war initiative against the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1982 was the first Arab-Israel war in which the Israeli armed forces fought a relatively low-intensity conflict against a far weaker opponent. As a number of studies show, the military’s performance level in this war was quite low

in comparison with past conventional conflicts. The outcome of the war was frustrating as well. Although most of the Palestinian force was destroyed and the PLO was expelled from Lebanon, Israel suffered many casualties. And when it withdrew from the territory it had occupied three years earlier, it left behind a new type of enemy: Hizbullah.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

You may use material originated by this site.

However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

Advanced Training by Iran of Elite Hamas Undercover Unit 102 Plus 22 Sinai-Gaza Tunnels – Preparing the Children of Darkness for War!

June 24, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Since Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, and Hamas know they are going to fight a great war against the enemies of Allah,

they are preparing for it, while many children of God are walking as the children of darkness, totally unprepared for life after Armageddon.

Indeed the children who abide in the darkness of unbelief are prepar

ing to destroy all the citizens of this planet who refuse to believe in Allah, while they passively wait for them to do it. From a carnal standpoint, the children of darkness in their generation are indeed wiser than the children of light.

Luke 16:8 – And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Luke 22:53 – When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.

John 3:19 – And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 8:12 – Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Wake up, children of light, and stay on watch until the Master comes to take you home.

I Thessalonians 5:3-9 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor

of darkness. [6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. [7] For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

[8] But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. [9] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

The deeds of Iran and Hamas, described in the two DEBKAfile articles, which follow, were done in secret, known only by the Palestinian and Egyptian intelligence, but like all things of this type of darkness, it does eventually come to light. This would seem to be, on the part of Hamas, a type of “cutting off your nose to spite your face,”

Begin Article 1 – DEBKAfile

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas to release files on Palestinian intelligence collaboration with the US CIA, UK’s MI5 and Shin Bet

June 23, 2007, 10:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

The centerpiece is evidence of the Palestinian Authority Preventive Security service’s disclosure that Hamas’ elite undercover Unit 102, only 25 strong, underwent lengthy training in Iran in advanced combat tactics modeled on those of the US Seals and the Israel Navy’s Shayetet 13.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add: Unit 102 operated under such deep cover that even the commanders of Hamas’ military wing and its Executive Force did not know it existed.

Hamas is making good on its threat to use the huge archive of Palestinian Authority intelligence documents it captured in Gaza to compromise Mahmoud Abbas and members of his regime and show them up as minions of foreign powers and traitors to Palestinian national interests.

Begin Article 2 – DEBKAfile
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas threatens suicide attack, reveals Egyptian and Palestinian intelligence knew all about arms smuggling tunnels

June 23, 2007, 10:29 PM (GMT+02:00)

A week after assuming sole mastery of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is bent on further stoking military tensions ahead of the Sharm al-

Sheikh conference Monday, June 25.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has invited Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and the defeated Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the crisis created by the takeover which the Egyptian president angrily called “an illegal coup.”

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report: The Islamist group is satisfied that none of the four will resort to military action to upend its putsch.

After all, Cairo could have massed troops on its border with Gaza – with the silent encouragement of the US and Israel – and slapped down a 48-hour ultimatum for Hamas to hand over the usurped Palestinian ruling institutions, or else be forced out by Egyptian guns.

But Hamas knows that, just as Israel opted to keep its powder dry, so too has Cairo.

Therefore, Hamas in Gaza is pressing its advantage, taking a leaf out of Yasser Arafat’s manual whereby every diplomatic move – conference, peace effort or mediation

– occ asioned

a campaign of terror against Israel.

More violence is therefore promised on top of Hamas’ daily Qassam missile and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians and border forces.

Fatah is now added to the list of targets, according to Hamas extremist Mahmoud a-Zahar in an interview with Der Spiegel Saturday, June 23.

Alongside the threat of violence, Hamas released Saturday a batch of documents captured in the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence archives in Gaza, which include complete maps in the hands of the Palestinian Preventive Security service and Egyptian intelligence of 22 gunrunning tunnels from Sinai to Gaza. Exes marked the points of ingress and exit under cover of buildings.

This incriminating expose attesting to the two governments’ deliberate inaction in preventing the Hamas military build-up is important on three counts:

1. Hamas is abreast of the secret information in the possession of Egyptian and Palestinian Authority intelligence, and can make the necessary adjustments for keeping the smuggling routes running.

2. Israel was talking to the wall when its ministers kept on appealing to the Mubarak government year after year to block the smuggling tunnels. It is clear that Cairo never had an intention of lifting a finger to stop the illicit weapons reaching Gaza and Hamas arsenals. Will Olmert keep up the charade at Sharm al-Sheikh?

3. Since Egyptian intelligence and Mahmoud Abbas’ security services had precise knowledge of 22 tunnels at least, how come this information was never obtained by Israeli intelligence

?

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

Fanatical Minorities Lead, Moderate Majorities Appease, Others Ignore!

June 24, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

It is no great secret that in many countries the party in power is the one controlling the media, primarily because it has more opportunity to fill the listeners with their own propaganda and philosophies.

They are also able to get more of their voters to turn out at election time. After a prolonged period of watching their “experts” and “talking heads” on television, voters are strongly influenced to put them in office.

This article describes a historical pattern that is part of man’s basic nature since Cain slew Abel. The sad thing that struck me when I read it was that even after reading it, I know the process will continue until the Lord returns. Fanatical minorities will continue to control countries and societies such that only war can bring temporary periods of peace.

The cycle of war followed by peace is a cycle that will only be broken in the Heaven Age after a thousand years of it in the Lord’s Millennium.

Revelation 20:7-10 – And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, [8] And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. [9] And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

[10] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Unfortunately, the world has to go through what follows to reach where the previous Scripture begins.

Joel 3:9-18 – Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

[11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. [12] Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. [13] Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. [14] Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. [16] The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. [17] So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. [18] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

I do not know precisely where the article originated, so I cannot give credit to its author, but am in full accord with everything it states. I do hope a lot of people read and consider it. I received it from Joan Baker.

Begin Article

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

“Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come.

My family lost everything.

I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.

Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.

It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill.

It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals.

The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority” the “silent majority” is cowed and extraneous. Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 Million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

China’s huge population, it was peaceful as well, but Chinese communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people. The average Japanese individual prior to World War 2 was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across Southeast Asia in an orgy of murder that included the systematic killing of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery.

Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”? History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, Because, like my friend from Germany , they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

End of Article

I cannot recall ever asking anyone to forward material, but I will do so on this one.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, can contribute to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on!! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this – think about it – and send it on.

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Dardanelle MBC

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

You may use material originated by this site.

However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

Will Hamas be able to Assassinate Abbas and can Fatah defend the West Bank?

June 23, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

When the fur was flying in the Gaza Strip I thought that eventually Hamas and Fatah would kiss

and make up, but I must say after reading the article which follows from MEMRI, it will take the assassination of Abbas for that to happen. I cannot see a “kiss and make up” scenario with Abbas heading Fatah, but stranger things have happened.

After you read the article which follows, it is likely you will draw the same conclusion – It is one mean letter.

The major question lurking in the minds of the US, UN, EU, and Israel is a simple one – With the millions of dollars, as well as life subsistence and military weapons, flowing into the West Bank, will the Fatah be able to stop Hamas from eventually taking over Fatah portions of it. Israel must help them militarily to insure Fatah holding on to it. To say this is a titanic, jumbled up, can of worms is the understatement of the year!

Begin MEMRI Article

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)

Special Dispatch Series Njumber 1632

June 22, 2007

Mahmoud Abbas: No to Dialogue with the Murderers; This is Not a Struggle Between Fatah and Hamas, but Between the National Project and the Emirate of Darkness and Backwardness

In a scathing speech to the PLO Central Council on June 20, 2007, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas harshly condemned the brutal actions of Hamas during its takeover of Gaza, and accused the Hamas leadership of plotting to assassinate him. Ruling out any dialogue with Hamas, he called to restore the situation that had existed before the coup. He also declared that his main objective was to prevent the civil war from spreading to the West Bank, and called to launch final-status negotiations with Israel.

The following are the main points of his speech:

Hamas has Desecrated our National Symbols

“The Palestinian flag was trampled today under the feet of [those] who regard the Palestinian national project – whose banner we have been carrying generation after generation – as opposed to their [own] project of darkness.

They have replaced [the Palestinian flag] with their own flag, which is a flag of division, detached from our people’s history, its struggle and its sacrifice.

Next, they persistently set out to desecrate each and every emblem of our national struggle, even in the home of our [late] leader, the martyr Yasser Arafat, and [in the home of Fatah founder] Abu Jihad. In central Gaza, they threw down the statue of the unknown soldier pointing towards Jerusalem – [a monument] that symbolizes the sacrifice of [our] martyrs, the legacy of the Palestinian fighters, and the unity of Palestinian, Egyptian, and Arab blood.”

Hamas Plans to Establish Emirate of Religious Fanaticism
“[Hamas] formulated a plan to split Gaza from the West Bank and to establish an emirate, or a mini-state of one color controlled by a single group of extremists and religious fanatics. [In order to realize] its plan, it made military and political preparations by forming armed militias, controlled exclusively by [Hamas], which were trained to take over the PA in our beloved Gaza Strip… [Meanwhile, Hamas] continued its assassinations of the field comm anders

and leaders of the security apparatuses and of the Fatah movement in Gaza. We witnessed murders and executions unprecedented in our entire history, based on accusations of apostasy and treason, on the uprooting [of people], on incitement to hatred, and on agitation of raw impulses and emotions.”

Crimes Perpetrated By Hamas

“The putschists attacked the headquarters of the National Security [Forces], General Intelligence, the Preventive Security [apparatus], and the Presidential Guard, and perpetrated horrors that are totally alien to our [Palestinian] heritage and tradition – murdering, executing people on the street, throwing fighters from tall buildings, and looting security headquarters, public facilities and Christian houses of worship.

“[Indeed,] even the churches were not spared. One of the oldest churches in Palestine, which stood long before our arrival [in the region], was looted and set on fire.

There are Christians among us, and they are our brothers, and now we discover that [according to Hamas] they are enemies and must leave [Palestine]?!… This is a mark of shame on the Palestinian people, on those who perpetrated these [crimes], on the putschists and murderers. [They attacked] the homes of hundreds of Palestinian Authority civil servants, [who are] peaceful citizens as well as symbols of our national sovereignty like the presidential headquarters, which was taken over by hooligans who destroyed and looted it…”

No Dialogue with the Murderers

“There can be no dialogue with these murderers and putschists, and in our entire history, I cannot think of another force or group [of Palestinians] who murdered their own people, [looted] homes and property, and desecrated our national symbols, like the putschists in Gaza have done during this black week. To what end did they do this, and in the name of what religion? [It cannot have been] in the name of religion, for religion has nothing to do with acts such as these.

Islam calls for tolerance and liberty.

This is not Islam; it is alien to [the spirit of] Islam… The only purpose of the coup was to realize the sick and reckless fantasy of establishing an emirate of darkness and backwardness that will control, with fire and with an iron [fist], the lives, opinions and future of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza…

“We have reached a new juncture, and there is no point in calling for dialogue as in the past. We must quell the putsch, in all its forms and manifestations, including by dismantling the Executive Force, which carried it out, and which was pronounced illegal by presidential decree. The Hamas leadership must apologize to the Palestinian people and to the PLO for the blood-soaked putsch it has perpetrated, and must hand over all PLO facilities and headquarters to the new legitimate government of united Palestine. It must obey the law and the decisions [of this new government, and stop] the destruction, crimes, assassinations, executions, looting, robbery, and other violations that have been carried out and are still being carried out in the Gaza Strip…

“We are not hostile to anyone, nor do we exclude or distance anyone – but [Hamas] has betrayed the trust [placed in it] and staged a putsch against the legitimate [government]. They are not worthy [partners] for dialogue. There will be no dialogue with them under any circumstances…”

The Conflict Should Not Be Described as a Struggle Between Fatah and Hamas

“Whoever tries to distort and simplify matters by describing this conflict as a struggle between Fatah and Hamas is wrong.

This is a conflict between the national project and the project of the militias; between the project of the single homeland and the project of an Emirate or an ostensible mini-state; between a project that attempts to impose its conditions by force and to establish its closed and private regime, and the project that has embraced democracy, dialogue, and national partnership in resolving conflicts. [This is a conflict] between those who take [the path of] assassinations, murder, killings, and plots in order to achieve their sectarian goals, and those who stand for the law and for the defense of the unity of the homeland and the people.”

The Hamas Leadership Tried to Assassinate Me

“One month ago, I learned that the Hamas movement had planted a bomb on Salah Al-Din Street, [meant] to explode as I passed by. The information was definite, and came from the security services, but it did not include the precise location [of the bomb]… I insisted on going to Gaza, and there I received a videotape from an individual in the Hamas movement. In the video I saw six people – with their faces uncovered and wearing Hamas symbols – dragging a 250-kilogram bomb. They placed it underground, and one of them said: ‘This is for the Israelis; we’ll keep it in reserve.’ They went on digging until they had [placed] three [bombs]. Some of them said: ‘This one [i.e. the first bomb] is for Abu Mazen, this one [i.e. the second] is for Abu Mazen, and this one [i.e. the third] is [also] for Abu Mazen; the next one will be for the Preventive Security [Forces]’. [The video had] picture and sound.

These people are known – their names and their faces are known. Whoever wants to see the video [can see it].

“I sent [the video] to [Hamas leader] Khaled Mash’al in Damascus.

He immediately denied [the accusation], before [even] viewing [the film]. [But] I was certain of all of this, since the messenger who brought me the video said that they had sent it to Khaled Mash’al so that he could give them the go time – when to light the fuse, or when [to set off] the bomb… I sent [the video] to all the Arab countries and to other countries [as well], so that they could see the extent of the crimes of this dark movement, this putschist [movement] that accuses others of apostasy.”

The Goal is to Prevent Civil War in the West Bank

“Our main goal is to prevent the civil war [from Gaza] from spreading to the West Bank; to carry out [our] security plans; to [put] an end to the era of the militias, so that there will be [just] one weapon in the field – the legitimate weapon of the Palestinian Authority; and to stop and prevent all infractions by any side. [Our goal] is to treat the citizens on the basis of respect for the law, and not to settle scores with anyone for belonging to [a certain] group, or for [holding certain] opinions…

“The schools, colleges, and universities will become centers of study and enlightenment, rather than centers of ignorance, darkness, and the propagation of an ideology of hatred that destroys the people’s unity and the social fabric.

Likewise, the mosques should be supported and developed such that they will remain centers of worship for the glorification of Allah, be He praised and exalted, and not centers of political propaganda that are exploited for the good of a certain group or a certain element and serve as weapons stockpiles and interrogation centers…

“The PLO Central Council is called upon to remain permanently convened, so that it can take part in dealing with the coup and in expelling [its perpetrators] from all circles of the Palestinian people. Likewise, the Council is called upon to support the resolutions of the PA – especially in the area of dealing with the coup – and to prevent [Hamas] from achieving its goals of dividing the homeland’s unity. The new government should be supported. All of the PLO institutions and Palestinian organizations in the homeland and abroad [should] give the government [their] full trust and support as well as national, popular, and legal backing…”

Launch Final-Status Negotiations

“We call today to launch final-status negotiations, and we believe that current conditions do not at all prevent the opening of negotiations in the context of

an international peace conference. As for international protection [in the Palestinian territories], and the arrival of international forces and observers, this is a subject for internal discussion, in all its aspects: political, judicial, and the degree to which this serves the national interest…”

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted m ateri

al the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

You may use material originated by this site.

However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner

from which we extracted it.